Posts Tagged ‘tilleys’

A DIFFERENT one this time. Lately, I’ve been broadening this blog with reviews of snackfoods. The problem is, no one read them. So here is another idea: reviews of sweets. Let me know in the comments at the end of this post what you think and if you want more.

First up is this pleasingly patriotic bag of Tilley’s Jargonelle Pears. This one was bought for £1 from a friendly trader on Brick Lane’s Sunday market.

Tilley’s, proudly tell us on the front of the bag that they’ve been making “Finest Quality Traditional Sweets” since they were established all the way back in 1885. The bag itself weighs in at 150 grams which is about the same as a medium-sized mobile phone.

I’ve never heard of “Jargonelle Pears” before. But I do like ordinary ones. With colourful colours, this bag looked to be worth my time and money. What though of the back of the bag?

The standard Tilley’s bag of sweets takes the approach of having the ingredients for every single one of their sweets printed on the back of the bag. It makes it as easy to read as the phone book. But then, with all the ‘E’ numbers trailing every list of ingredients printed, you wouldn’t want to worry yourself. There’s also the Northants postal address for Tilley’s Sweets Limited in case you want to write them a letter. And a telephone number, fax number and email address which is info@tilleyssweets.com in case you want to bother them electronically.

From the email address, it’s not difficult to figure out the web address for Tilley’s Sweets as being www.tilleyssweets.com. An address that mysteriously takes you to an online shop called Zed Candy. Someone who, according to their ‘About Us’ page bought Tilley’s a few years ago. So that explains that.

What’s inside the bag? Jargonelle Pears that look like this in their wrapper.

And look like this outside of their wrapper.

They are completely smooth. No rough surface or sugar.

What are they like? They have a bit of colour related flavour, but not much. For example, green ones taste a little but of sweet green. They would have to wouldn’t they, since the abstract concept of the colour green doesn’t have a taste. Except in the world of sweets. Either way, these Jargonelle Pears don’t have much of it.

By the time you crack the sweet open, you’re rewarded with an equally modest amount of fizz. Not much, but there’s something there at the end of all that sucking.

Total sucking time: 5-10 minutes

To sum up, Tilley’s Jargonelle Pears are subtle tasting, subtle responding boiled sweets. I like that they’re bigger than just about any boiled sweet out there. I’d prefer it if they had more flavour and more fizz, but there’s nothing to hate about them the way they are. The biggest downside is that you don’t get many in that standard sized bag.

Have you tried Tilley’s Jargonelle Pears? Do you work for Tilley’s/Zed Candy? Do please leave your opinions, corrections, requests and recommendations in the comments boxes here. And bookmark/subscribe to my blog while you’re at it.